BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network

DEX research grants support innovative exploratory projects or pilot studies in the areas of behavioural, health services, legal/ethical/social/policy and psychosocial research that has the potential to improve breast cancer control or quality of life. Applications are invited from all sectors of the breast cancer care or research continuum, from community-based groups to established researchers.

CBCRA’s IDEA grants support innovative, new research ideas that are speculative, but have the potential for advancing scientific knowledge. They support small-scale pilot studies or investigations of concepts to permit the investigator to test out new ideas, which, although based on good science, are outside of existing conventional research paradigms and could be deemed speculative. The expectation is that these ideas, once explored, will lead to the development of proposals for more extensive research grants. It is not the intent of the program to provide supplemental, add-on funding in support of existing, ongoing investigations.

Applications will be accepted that are aimed at leading to early, developmental, pre-clinical or pilot clinical studies, or practice-changing, high level of evidence definitive clinical trials that address one or more facets of stratifying breast cancer with the aim of more effective treatment. Proposed studies may focus on understanding the molecular etiology of the distinct subclasses, or tumour cell subpopulations even within a class, testing of strategies aimed at specific subtypes to more effectively treat specific subclasses, bioinformatics methods to predict outcome based on molecular signatures of the original cancer, techniques/technologies that increase accuracy of prediction and validation methodologies for evaluating performance of new tests and therapies.

DEX research grants support innovative exploratory projects or pilot studies in the areas of behavioural, health services, legal/ethical/social/policy and psychosocial research that has the potential to improve breast cancer control or quality of life. Applications are invited from all sectors of the breast cancer care or research continuum, from community-based groups to established researchers. DEX research grants support small-scale short-term pilot studies or investigation of concepts to permit the investigator to explore or test out new ideas or research methods. The expectation is that these ideas or methods, once explored, will lead to the development of proposals for full operating grants. It is not the intent of the program to provide supplemental, add-on funding in support of existing, ongoing investigations or quality assurance projects. It is intended that the DEX grants may precede, not replace, application to the regular CBCRA or CBCRA/CIHR operating grant competitions.

CBCRA’s IDEA grants support innovative, new research ideas that are speculative, but have the potential for advancing scientific knowledge. They support small-scale pilot studies or investigations of concepts to permit the investigator to test out new ideas, which, although based on good science, are outside of existing conventional research paradigms and could be deemed speculative. The expectation is that these ideas, once explored, will lead to the development of proposals for more extensive research grants. It is not the intent of the program to provide supplemental, add-on funding in support of existing, ongoing investigations.

This initiative promotes psychosocial research in breast cancer. Psychosocial oncology research covers a broad content area. For this initiative, psychosocial oncology is defined as any aspect of cancer care concerned with the understanding and treatment of social, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and functional aspects of cancer, at all stages of the disease trajectory from prevention to bereavement (Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology). Psychosocial oncology involves a whole-person approach to cancer care, addressing a range of human needs that can improve or optimize quality of life for affected individuals and their networks. A key goal in breast cancer research is to preserve and, where possible, to enhance quality of life as quickly and as fully as possible.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance (CBCRA) is pleased to announce its sixteenth annual research grants competition adjudicated through the NCIC. The submission deadline is October 15, 2008. Awards will commence on July 1, 2009. The grant year for CBCRA is normally July 1 through June 30. The CBCRA operating grants competition provides research support to individuals formally affiliated with Canadian universities or other recognized Canadian institutions. It is expected that the institution hosting the Principal Investigator will provide basic equipment, research facilities and administrative services. CBCRA grants will support the purchase and maintenance of expendable supplies and services, equipment and the salaries of individuals providing substantial contribution to the research, e.g., graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, technical and professional assistants and members of the lay community. CBCRA grants do not provide for personal salary support for grantees. While Principal Investigators, Co-Principal Investigators and Co-Applicants are excluded from salary support, Additional Authors, who contribute intellectually to the application, are recognized separately from grantees and may receive salary support from the grant.